Judges grants $1 bond for Erie shooting suspect

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Dionn Amison is accused of shooting his cousin, 23-year-old Tasha Pacley, multiple times outside a night club in the 100 block of West 19th Street at about 2:25 AM on May 13. Amison was apprehended on June 22. CONTRIBUTED/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

The investigation of a shooting outside a west Erie after-hours club landed Dionn R. Amison in prison on a charge of attempted homicide.

A glitch in that investigation has freed Amison, 22, to await trial at home on $1 bond.

Erie County Judge Shad Connelly on Friday granted Amison's request for nominal bond at the request of Amison's lawyer, Elliott Segel, who argued that Amison should be released because his right to a speedy trial has been violated.

Connelly directed that Amison be placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring to await his March trial on charges that he repeatedly shot his cousin, Tasha Pacley, in the 100 block of West 19th Street on May 13. Pacley was shot five times in the incident, and spent nearly a month in the hospital recovering from her injuries.

In a hearing Thursday in Erie County Court, Segel said more than 180 days have passed since Amison's arrest and he is not set to face trial until March.

The law, Segel said, gives Amison the right to stand trial within 180 days or be released on nominal bond. The delay in the case was the prosecution's fault, not Amison's, Segel said.

Amison had been scheduled to face trial in January when it was discovered that key evidence -- two handguns investigators said were used in the shooting -- had not yet been tested to see if they matched casings found at the crime scene.

"The Commonwealth has had seven to eight months since the evidence was obtained," Segel said. "We were told in January that through some unexplained oversight the items were never sent out."

Assistant District Attorney Carrie Munsee maintained in the hearing that the prosecution had acted with the required due diligence to get the information requested by the defense.

She said if Amison were released on bond, he should be placed on electronic monitoring due to the severity of the charges.

Amison faces charges that include criminal attempt at criminal homicide, aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the shooting.

Police initially charged Amison with shooting a second person in the incident, but those charges were withdrawn when that victim failed to appear in court for Amison's preliminary hearing in August.